Wildcard
by Jon Emery
Summary: My take on how Gambit first meets the X-Men. Sorta Slashy.
1. Chapter One

Wildcard

By Jon Emery

Pairing: Bobby/Remy

Author's Note:  Takes place after X2, this is my take on how Gambit becomes a part of the team. 

  Three teenagers tried to make their way through the suffocating crowd, travelling in a line and clinging to each other's arms in order to not get lost.  This may have, at some other time, seemed unusual – but not only was this New Orleans, it was Mardi Gras. 

  Rogue, Iceman and Jubilee had been sent by the Professor to New Orleans, to find a mutant with potentially destructive powers.  Xavier seemed to think that he posed a serious threat to the human population, which would subsequently harm their attempts to show the human world that mutants were not dangerous.  

  Of course, this would all have to occur during the largest, loudest, and most impossibly lurid festival of the year.  While Jubilee seemed to be enjoying herself immensely, Rogue appeared nervous – she disliked crowds for the simple fact that they implied body contact, something which she couldn't afford.  She just wanted to find the mutant, and get the hell out of there.

  Bobby was nervous too, but for a different reason.  He didn't have to worry about draining the life from a whole mob of people like Rogue did.  His worries were solely focused on the task at hand.  This was their first mission unaccompanied by one of the senior X-Men, and he was anxious to prove himself.  Apparently the mutant was about their age, which was why the Professor had sent them instead of the usual team.  He reckoned they could use their 'natural empathy' to win over the renegade, or something like that. 

  The mutant was called Remy LeBeau, and was said to be a major player in organised crime down in New Orleans.  They were currently unsure of what his mutant ability specifically was, which just made Bobby more nervous.  They didn't even know how they were meant to find LeBeau; Xavier had simply given them a list of clubs that the mutant had been known to frequent. 

  The first place, La Lune Jaune, was a fairly quiet and dark bar that Bobby was sure attracted the shadier side of New Orleans' clientele.  When it became pretty obvious that no mutants were welcome there, 'after what happened with that other one' (who Bobby took to be LeBeau), they quickly moved onto Genesis, a gay bar that provided Jubilee with much entertainment, but merely produced a look of distaste in Rogue.  The third and final location, The Lion's Den, resembled from the outside possibly the roughest place Bobby had ever willingly approached.  Thinking over and over again how stupid he would look in front of Xavier and Cyclops and Storm if he failed, Bobby led Rogue and Jubilee into the Lion's Den. 

  Moving to the beat of the music, drunk out of his mind, Remy almost let himself go.  He could feel the wants and desires of everyone in the club, could see himself through their eyes, tinged with lust.  Allowing himself an inner smile, he began to make his way out of the gyrating throng. 

"Baby, no..." groaned one man, holding onto Remy's arm.  "just one more song."

"No can do, homme," Remy replied.  "Gambit got places to be."  And with a charming smile, he had left the dancefloor.  Deciding to get a final drink before going back to l'hôtel, he leaned against the bar.

"Whiskey, chere." He winked at the barmaid and turned back to face the room.  Taking the drink without a second look, he knocked it back and was on his way out when Pierre, the guy he had been dancing with earlier, grabbed the back of his jacket. 

  Bobby knew the mutant as soon as he entered the club – olive skin, red hair, and a manner so blatantly sexual that every eye in the room kept darting back to him.  Bobby could have admired this view all night, had a human not attacked Remy.

  "Y'think y'can just do that? Do that to me?" Remy had no time to answer before he was punched hard in the face, the blow nearly knocking him off his feet.  Instead he used the force of the blow to spin round and kick Pierre in the face, at the same time pulling a card from the pack in his jacket's sleeve.  Letting his own energy flow into the Jack of Hearts, he flicked it towards Pierre and dived backwards – just as his makeshift bomb exploded.  The resulting flames engulfed the front of Pierre's shirt, and would have left him badly injured – but as Remy watched, he saw the flames and the card's incinerated remains turn to ice.  _Mutant_, he thought.  Spinning around, he saw three strangers standing in the entrance – a blond young man, a Chinese girl and a young woman with a white streak in her dark hair.  Remy only had to take one look to tell they weren't human.

  "LeBeau!" The young man shouted over the noise.  "Come with us!"  He held out a hand, gloved in leather.

  Remy looked back, looked back at the suddenly violent crowd and the terrified but furious Pierre.  The Lion's Den had been his place for so long, but he knew he could never come back now.  Turning to face the newcomers, he took the man's hand.

TBC – I'm unsure how to continue this, suggestions very much appreciated.


	2. Chapter Two

Wildcard

By Jon Emery

Chapter Two

Pairing: Remy/?

It was 5am, and the mansion was silent. Remy smirked, as he remembered the rhyme his mother used to tell him. _Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse..._ But thoughts of his mother soon turned bitter, and he focused on the house that may or may not become his new home. Through the windows at the end of the hall he could see the first traces of dawn, but he had a good few minutes to himself before people started waking. And there was one thing in particular that he wanted to personally see to. Tiptoeing over floorboards that would have creaked under anyone else, he made his way to the room belonging to Bobby Drake.

The door was closed, but Remy's sharp senses could detect movement from more than one person within. Pressing his ear to the door, he could hear muffled whispers of 'God, John...' and various exclamations of pleasure. _John_... the name rang a bell in Remy's mind. He believed he had been introduced to a John when he arrived at the mansion the previous night. All moody and sulking, obviously the wannabe bad boy of the house.

'I'm so glad you came back,' he heard Bobby say. 'You don't know how hard it was, without you.'

_Fantastique_ Remy thought, pouting. It had been his intention to seduce Drake while he was at Xavier's Institute and then move on, but that plan was blown to high hell. Bobby was in love with John, and while it may have been a nice challenge to see if he could get Drake to drop his pants a while ago, Remy no longer found pleasure in other peoples' misery. Well, rarely.

Sneaking back up the stairs to the guest room, Remy was almost to his door when he heard a floorboard creak and a door behind him open. Spinning around, he was confronted by a six-foot tall, muscle-bound (and topless) man.

"Morning," Colossus said, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "What are you doing up this early?"

Remy felt like he had just been shown the way.

Yes, yes, I know it's an annoyingly short chapter – but I had no idea where to go with this, so bear with me.


	3. Chapter Three

Wildcard

By Jon Emery

Chapter Three

Pairing: Remy/Piotr... For Now

Rogue was making herself breakfast when she first heard the noises. She'd got up kinda early, just after six, so she figured it was just people waking up and showering. But it didn't take her long to note that showers didn't make _those _kinds of noises. Not the kinds of noises that sent a flush of pink to your cheeks and a flutter somewhere else. _Not that she was listening, _but she could make out Piotr's deep and throaty voice grunting rather dirty things... then she heard the other voice.

_"Mmm, ooh, oui, oui, plus dûr, baise-toi..._ _"_ That was when the flush of pink turned to a Warhol-esque scarlet and the 'elsewhere' flutter became a heartbeat in its own right. And she was very, very confused. She could just about handle Bobby dumping her when John came back from his sojourn with Magneto – after all, she wasn't stupid; it had been obvious they were in love. But the guy from New Orleans and Piotr? Was _everyone _going gay? When Remy and Piotr came down for breakfast half an hour later, she was leaning against the counter with a cup of coffee.

Keeping her eyes on them as they went about fixing eggs, she said nonchalantly (and rather smugly):

"Y'know, guys, you might wanna think about getting a room." They looked up, confused. "I mean, one that isn't right above the kitchen."

Remy was bored. Like, incredibly. Piotr had been an incredible amount of fun for a morning, with his hard muscular body and boyish naivety – but Remy had the attention span of a very short spanned thing, and soon after the less-than-amusing joke made by Vogue, was it? in the breakfast hall he was ready to move on.

"Bonsoir, mes jolis copains." He grinned, resisting the urge to steal one of the fine-looking bikes in the garage. As he left the mansion grounds, he flicked a glowing Ace of Spades over his shoulder, lighting a cigarette as it exploded over the lawn like a firework – a gift from Gambit.

Yes again, I know it was short – but I wanted to get to work on the sequel, which will hopefully have more graphic nookie etc. Suggestions?


End file.
